7.23.2015

Visual Communications presents VC #TBT

A Summer Screening, July 30 at the David Henry Hwang Theatre

Film fans, if you're in Los Angeles, Visual Communications invites you to VC #TBT, a special summer screening of ten short films by Asian American filmmakers, curated by VC's summer interns. If you missed out on the shorts programs at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in April, here's your second chance. Plus free food and drinks. It's happening Thursday, July 30 at the David Henry Hwang Theatre in Little Tokyo.

After a four-year absence, Visual Communications is pleased to welcome the return of the summer screening, curated and organized by our intrepid group of summer interns. Join us as we present a summertime #tbt, featuring ten new short films by Asian Pacific American artists that showcase a diverse variety of stories and styles. Stick around afterwards for a post-screening reception in the Aratani Courtyard with free food and drinks, good company, and an opportunity drawing for cool prizes.

PROGRAM

ALL THE WAY
Dir.: Allison Nakamura
It’s a Wednesday morning in Salt Lake City and the “Nisei Senior Mixed” bowling league is cooking up competition on the lanes. Black-haired perms bob up and down alongside white-haired combovers under the dimmed fluorescent lights. Rants about expired hearing aids and grandchildren gossip weave amongst the crash of strikes and spares. Down-low high fives, gasps, and cheers accompany white Velcro sneakers and tucked-in button-ups. Backed by slouched posture and arthritic hands, the ball rolls straight down the middle.

HELLO KITTY AND HER FANS
Dir.: Frances Ito
Sanrio created Hello Kitty and began her globalization in 1974. She is not a cat, does not have a mouth but is an ambassador of friendship. Watch how she takes over the world with her motto: you can never have too many friends!

CROISSANT MAN
Dir./Scr.: Tulica Singh
Croissant, a depressed artist, feels that his life as a pastry is meaningless. When his best friend Biscotti takes him out to the junk-food slums to clear his existential blues, Croissant meets a beautiful Pain Au Chocolat vision that inspires him to validate his existence by protecting the Pastries of the Boulangerie from an angry Donut assailant. A 9-part web series, Croissant Man combines puppetry, beauty, and melodramatic comedy to look at issues of depression, social stratification, and the brief life-affirming moments that make life worth living.

JULIET JULIET — THE SOUND OF LOVE MUSICAL
Dir.: Ken Ochiai
Two rivals bid for the lead role in an annual music festival at a prestigious women’s high school. Things get complicated when a male transfer student appears.

OUR PLACE IN THE SKY
Dir.: Yoko Okumura
Starla knows a place where pigtails are on animals and schoolgirls are educated. OUR PLACE IN THE SKY is a slam poetry film that pulls back the curtain on fetishization.

INSOMNIA
Dir./Scr.: Brian Tran
A man goes through his normal routine under a troubled sleep-deprived state. As the day progresses, delusion and reality become indistinguishable until he finally reaches a deeper state of insomnia.

JEANNIE WONG WANTS TO DO EVERYTHING
Dir.: Jeff Man
A portrait of the multi-talented Jeannie Wong: filmmaker, artist, writer, party host, marathoner, dancer, and musician. Jeannie does it all and yet still finds that her life is missing something.

REMEMBERING RAFU MANDOLIN CLUB
Dir./Scr.: David Osako
The discovery of old reel-to-reel tape recordings exhumed from the back of a closet leads to the resurrection of musical treasures from the Japanese American musical culture of the 1950s-60s, recorded by a Los Angeles band called the Rafu Mandolin Club. The film presents a selected sample of these recordings—highlighting the extraordinary female Japanese vocalist, Harumi—along with some moments captured from a 50-year reunion of the original music group members and family at a gathering in a Little Tokyo restaurant.

COMING HOME
Dir.: Steven Liang
Jie Cheng, a well-behaved local Taiwanese high schooler, and Eric, a rebellious international student from the US, take a road trip down the most dangerous highway in Taiwan. Their trip is cut short when Eric reveals that he must return home after graduation, forcing Jie Cheng to confront his darkest demons.

THE CUT THROUGH
Dir./Scr.: Weldon Powers
Kenneth, a suburban husband, is tired of the neighborhood kids cutting through his backyard to get to the woods behind his house. One day, Kenneth decides to follow the kids into the woods, and he finds out about their discovery of a mysterious portal to an unknown place. With some peer pressure from the kids, Kenneth begins to question his own comfortable suburban lifestyle and considers jumping into the portal with them.

DIRECTIONS AND PARKING INFORMATION:
Google Map: http://bit.ly/1fGQdLt
Parking: Judge John Aiso Parking Lot, 101 Judge John Aiso St. [btwn. 1st and Temple Sts., across the street from the Union Center for the Arts. $1 per hour; $5/3 hrs.] Several pay lots available in Little Tokyo. Metered street parking is also available.